Sunday, December 30, 2012

9Slides is a wonderful site for adding narrations/video to a presentation. This is very easy to do, supports a wide variety of files (PPT, Keynote, etc), and works great on mobile devices. Also, a finished presentation can be embedded into a site or blog.

Lecture Spy is a wonderful site for educators to host and upload all types of files for students to use, such as: audio/video files, presentations, images, and more. Also, this is a nice secure site for discussing and viewing course work material.

Friday, December 21, 2012

SpellingCity is a wonderful site for teachers to help students strengthen their spelling and vocabulary skills. This is done by searching through or creating your own word lists that can then be imported into interactive learning games. Also, there is excellent free iOS app that interacts w/ users of the SC site.

Tuesday, December 18, 2012

Showbie is a wonderful site/iPad app that I found out about from Edshelf. This is an app that interacts w/ the Showbie site where teachers create classes and assignments. Once this is done students can then use the iPad app to share files and turn in assignments. Teachers can then evaluate student work using their Showbie iPad app as well.

Thursday, December 13, 2012

FluencyFinder is a wonderful iOS app for assessing student reading levels. This is done through a very easy to user interface where teachers print out Reading passages Grades 1 - 8 and then have students read along while marking their mistakes on their mobile device. Best of all students are created on their mobile device and all student and data tracking is done automatically which then generates reports.

Wednesday, December 12, 2012

The Answer Pad is a great free iPad solution for assessing student data. This is done by registering and interacting w/ a free iPad app that allows teachers to create student accounts and answer sheets, and then assess student data.

Tuesday, December 11, 2012

Boom Writer is one of my favorite Web 2.0 site and is a very innovative way to integrate technology into a curriculum. This is done by having a class grades 3-8 create a digital story through an online competition in a safe environment. Students create chapters and then vote on which chapters should be included in the finished product. Once a book is completed it can then be published and a copy can be ordered. Right now BW offers a free class copy for new teachers that sign up.

Best of all there is an educational portal for Boom Writer which allows teachers to create student accounts.

Monday, December 10, 2012

Gnowledge is one of my favorite sites for creating collaborative online quizzes. This site is very user friendly has excellent tutorials, and a wonderful list of online quizzes and assignments for teachers to look through.

Thursday, December 6, 2012

Edbok stands for Educational Digital Books & Online Knowledge. This is a great site for finding digital books on a wide variety of topics as well other things. This is a relatively new site, so there are not a lot of books to choose from.

Weavly is a new (beta) site for creating excellent looking mashup videos. This is done by uploading video, audio, or images and then mixing them together. The video editor is very easy to use via drag-n-drop and looks something not unlike iMovie HD.

Wednesday, December 5, 2012

Vivapitch is a free application-add on for Powerpoint and Android. Basically, it replaces the need for a presenter to give handouts as Vivapitch allows users to interact w/ their presentations on a mobile device. This is ideal for people giving presentations, keynote, or wants to engage their audience.

Tuesday, December 4, 2012

Jumbalees is a fantastic site for parents and kids to learn and read entertaining stories involving characters called, Jumbalees. These books are available as storybooks or on the Kindle, and there are even some free digital ebooks too. This site also allows people to learn more about the characters as well as play educational games/printables such as: connect the dots, word search, maze, etc.

Recycle Hero is a great Android/Google Play app that was formerly known as the iOS app Trash Chaos. This is one of my favorite games for my kids that teaches them about recycling in a fun and engaging way. There are lots of levels, characters, and worlds to play through. Other versions such as iPad, Nook, Kindle, etc will be here this friday.

Visualead is a cool site that I just found out about for creating visual QR codes. This is done by uploading an image, cropping what part of that image you want to turn into a QR code, add a link, and click generate. QR codes are fun to do w/ students for an engaging activity that can use a wide variety of mobile devices.

Wednesday, November 28, 2012

Miracle of Life is one of my favorite Health apps (English/Spainsh) for the iPad I've ever seen. This is a beautiful looking app that is educational and very informative about the human growth cycle. This app covers all 3 stages such as: fertilization, gestation, and growth, and is ideal for parents, Health teachers, and those looking to teach their children about "growing" up.

Skillshare is a site I first heard about on the news and is a great site for offering an online class to share knowledge or to take a class as well. This is done through a innovative online interface and offers a style of "hybrid" learning.

Chart Jungle is an excellent site to find free printables on any number of topics. Not only is there an excellent education section for finding lots of classroom needs, there are other categories for people looking for printables on every day items.

Tuesday, November 27, 2012

ExamTime is an excellent learning environment for students. This is a place where they can share resources w/ other students such as: mindmaps, quizzes, flashcards and more. Since it's online it can be used on any computer or mobile device and is ideal for facilitate learning.

SendHub is an excellent free site or app for teachers to text parents/students for free. This is done by creating a unique SendHub # that can be used from any computer, cell phone, or iPhone app. It's ideal for sending notifications to groups or students/parents.

Monday, November 26, 2012

Silk is a fun site for creating digital art that I found out about from Larry Ferlazzo's excellent blog. All a user has to do is click and drag the mouse around the screen to create some cool looking designs. A person can change the color of their picture as well and no registration is needed. Once a picture is completed it can then be shared or emailed to others.

Tuesday, November 20, 2012

It's that time of year again to nominate your favorite people, sites, communities, etc in Education and Technology. What makes these awards nice is that people can only get eligible for these awards are being nominated and voted on by our peers.

Friday, November 16, 2012

Sandbox is a iOS browsing app that is ideal for an educational setting. The only way a site can be reached is by a teacher "whitelisting" a site in the browsers setting. This way no inappropriate sites can be reached and students can stay on task. Also, a Plist can be created to administered for a wide number of devices.

Tuesday, November 13, 2012

The Periodic Table of Comic Books is a site after my own heart. Being an avid comic book collector growing up in the 80's I had to check out this site recommended by Free Technology 4 Teachers. This is a great site for viewing elements that have been in comics. All a person has to do is click on an element to see a thumbnail of the comic, and then click the thumbnail to view the whole page of that comic. It's very interesting, fun, and nostaglic for those comic book fans.

I highly recommend checking out The Periodic Table of Comic Books by clicking here!!

5 Dice is a free iOS app ideal for teaching order of operations in Math. This is a great app that is a lot fun and quite challenging at times. A person can use this app to practice their order of operation skills as well as use the handy white board to work out problems before answering the questions in the game. I really think this app can be a handy tool for teachers, parents, and students looking to learn or strengthen their skills in learning order of operations.

Friday, November 9, 2012

Classroom Carrots is a site that reminds me of a cross between Class Dojo and Class Badges. This is done by using their educational portal to create a class and add students. Once that is done a teacher can then modify their rewards/stickers and start adding these stickers to students. This is used to manage behavior as well as increase student engagement. Also, they have a nice iPad app for mobility.

Story Builder is an interesting site to get people to create a story in a unique way. W/out having to register a person can start creating a story using a template, selecting music, and then adding text between characters. These finished stories can then be shared via a link or embedded into a site.

It's that time of year again where I get to write my favorite post. This year instead of doing just my top favorite sites I'm going to include Apps due to the shift in education to mobile learning and the "flipped classroom". While last years post included lots of educational networks, this year has lots of curation sites as well as writing/grammar sites. I I hope you enjoy this post as much as I had writing it.

*Any site on the 2011 top 100 list will not appear on this list.

Top 100 Sites & Apps of 2012

MentorMob - Probably the coolest site I've come across this year. MentorMob is a place where teachers can curate the web into learning playlists and then share them w/ their students via a link or embedding into a site.

Pinterest - This is the most popular site on my list and another great site for curating the web. Lots of educators can be found on here sharing and "pinning" great sites for education.

Nearpod - A terrific free iPad app that teacher's use to create interactive presentations then share on student's iPad devices. Students then use their Nearpod app to submit responses which teacher's can then assess on their own Nearpod app.

Edshelf - One of my favorite sites of the year that is ideal for educators to find educational technology sites or curate them into shelves.

ClassBadges - A fantastic new site that allows teachers to award digital badges to students for accomplishments.

FluencyFinder - A innovative new iOS app for assessing student's reading fluency. This is a very simple app to use and get instant real-time results for assessing student's reading fluency.

PowToon - One of the best sites I've seen for making stunning animated presentations.

3D Toad - An amazing site for finding interactive educational images that a person can zoom in and out and rotate 360 degrees.

SendHub - A fantastic way to send free text or group messages to parents/students.

BeeClip EDU - A great site w/ educational portal (no student email necessary to register) that is ideal for students for creating digital scrapbooks.

The Answer Pad - This is a great site/iPad app combo that allows teachers to create answer sheets online and then assign them to students. The students then using a free app fill in the answer sheet, show their work, etc and then submit to their teacher which they get instant real-time results/graphs.

WatchKnowLearn - Is a site that reminds me a lot of Discovery Streaming and is great for finding educational videos for K-12.

Nanoogo - A wonderful new site that gives students/teachers a digital canvas to ignite creativity and share lessons/ideas/work etc in a new and exciting way.

Class Dojo iOS App - Is a wonderful free iOS app that interacts w/ the fantastic behavior management site. Teachers can award or discipline students via a mobile device w/out having to be worried about being tied down to a desktop machine.

iBooks Author - A free iPad app for creating interactive digital books. This could be a game changer in education as more and more text books are being phased out.

SideVibe - A great way to take any content from the web and turn it into an activity for students.

OuiBox - A great site for writing, that sites sources, annotates, and more as you write.

Flocabulary -A neat site for finding teaching lessons, songs, and videos through the use of educational hip hop.

GoClass - GoClass is an excellent web based app for the iPad that works a bit like Nearpod. It allows teachers to manage their class on the web and then create assignments that students take on their iPad. Teachers can then assess student's work via the web or the iPad app.

NoRedInk - A terrific site for helping student w/ their grammar and writing skills. Teachers can assign lessons and quizzes as well as tracking student progress.

MeoGraph - An innovative new site for four dimensional storytelling that has an educational portal.

Inklewriter - A fun site that allows students to write creative stories online for free. It works by adding to a current story or starting your own and then branching off to where you want to go. It's great for collaborating w/ others and once it's finished it gets published online and can be shared w/ others.

9Slides - Is a fantastic site for adding narration or video to slideshows. This is great for professional development or for explaining and introducing a new concept or subject.

Winged Sandals - This is my favorite site for all things Greek Mythology. This is a great site for finding out interesting facts, images, pictures and games.

theLearnia - A nice educational social learning network that is great for students and educators to share and learn knowledge through online lessons.

Playfic - This is a site after my own heart that allows users to create, play, and remix online text based games (Zork anyone?). A great way to interact w/ others and strengthen your writing/grammar skills.

Teachers Tech - Is a wonderful iOS app for finding "how to" videos on all things web 2.0 related in the classroom.

Trash Chaos - Is a fun original iPad app for learning about recycling. This app is ideal for younger kids, has excellent animated graphics and by a top notch company, Yogome.

Humanline - One of the best new sites around for finding free educational images.

Hello Slide - This is a very cool site that gives a voice or narration to slides by simply typing what you want it to say.

Moms w/ Apps - Is a great place for finding educational apps as well as learning about other great mobile programs such as App Friday.

InSkilled - A unique site that allows users to track and share what they learn online through a very useful self paced interface.

Musicshake Edu - Students create music online that can then be downloaded or used anywhere.

List.ly - A great way to curate the web into lists and then share w/ others or embed into a site.

Knowmia - A nice place to find educational videos on 1000's of lessons for every subject. Ideal for the HS level.

Nulu - A innovative site for learning Spanish by reading relative articles on a wide variety of subjects that is translated into Spanish. A user can then select which words are difficult for them to help guide their learning.

Storyboard That - A excellent web tool for students to visual tell a story through a storyboard. This is ideal for digital storytelling as well as brainstorming new ideas.

Snip.it - A fun site for curating the web into thumbnails similar to Pinterest.

Educreations - This is a wonderful site/iPad app for creating a lesson on a digital whiteboard then recording what's happening.

Understoodit - A very simple idea for a site that works. A teacher creates a page where students click understand or confused (about any subject the teacher is teaching) and the teacher gets instant real-time feedback.

Literacy Shed - A great place to find resources for literacy on a wide range of topics.

United Classrooms - This is a global social learning network that connects classrooms around the world.

AnMisH - A fun site for digital storytelling where you can use your own image as one of the characters.

Every1Speaks - Is a great way to harvest an idea by collaborating w/ others and introducing into a school setting.

Essay Tagger - A stunningly simple way to grade essays through a web based tool.

Share my Lesson - A great site for teachers to find educational resources developed by teachers.

Avatar Classroom - Is a innovative site that is a web based classroom hosted in a virtual world that is similar to MyLife.

I Tell a Story - Is a excellent free iOS app for digital storytelling that reminds me a lot of the way Garageband is used to create a podcast.

Tioki - This is a nice network for educators to collaborate and share resources.

DuoLingo - A neat site for learning a foreign language by translating different articles on the web w/ others.

LyricsGaps - A very fun site for learning a foreign language by filling in gaps of a song that are missing.

Quick ScreenShare - This is a very handy web tool that allows people to share their screen w/ no registration needed. This is a great way to help troubleshoot or explain things to people by showing them your computer screen.

Moo-O - A entertaining site that is puts kids right in the middle of the story and helps nurture their love of reading.

Teach w/ Portals - A interesting site for gamification that uses the award winning Portal PC game for teaching. This site has a nice help forum as well as lesson plans on how to integrate into the classroom.

Miracle of Life - One of the most beautiful looking iPad apps that I have ever seen. This app is in both English & Spanish and focuses on the human growth cycle.

EdSurge - A community that is great for educators that has excellent articles as well as product reviews.

Grammar Bytes - A great site for all things grammar such as handouts, definitions, presentations, videos, and more.

Problem-Attic - A nice site to find and customize educational resources based on Regent exams in Math, Science, Social Studies, and English.

Power my Learning - One of my favorite sites for finding educational activities on a wide range of subjects.

BusyTeacher - A terrific site for finding free printable worksheets as well as resources for ESL teachers.

Lingt Classroom - A cool site for learning a foreign language by creating voice based lessons.

Storybricks - A great site for digital storytelling that uses MMO and gamification to create a creative/unique story.

C-Fit - Is a series of iOS apps designed to keep kids healthy by engaging in exercise via walk-through videos.

Story Patch - A fantastic iOS app for digital storytelling that goes through the step by step process of telling a story.

Kindertown - A great site/app for finding educational apps for Pre-schoolers and young kids.

Creating Music - A nice site for learning different terms and composing your own music.

Google Course Builder - A new project by Google to help people build their own online courses uses Google tools.

ESL Library - A wonderful site for ESL teachers looking to find lesson plans and flashcards.

Tuesday, November 6, 2012

Story Math is a interesting site for learning math through digital storytelling that I found out about from the innovative Kelly Tenkely. The way this works is by choosing 1 of 3 stories that students can interact w/ by reading and watching an animated video to solve problems. These problems focus on different math concepts such as geometry and algebra.

Monday, November 5, 2012

Edshelf the excellent resource sharing/collecting site for Ed Tech tools has just totally redesigned their web interface. It has a brand new polished look that is easy to navigate and users of Printerest will feel right at home. The home page has fantastic collections of popular resources based on category, as well as keeping their familiar looking lists such as: editors picks, recently added, and recently reviewed.

Once a user has clicked on a collection they can easily follow that user, change the view layout to add notes to a tool, or even see how many reviews, collections, or colleagues are following that tool. This is a really user friendly site that has seamlessly switched over to their new looking website.

Three Little Pigs is wonderful interactive digital story ($1.99 iOS/Android app) by Kids Academy, a great developer of mobile apps. This app has 3 different modes: Autoplay, Listen & Play, and Read Myself. Once the story starts a person can interact w/ the characters and objects by the screen by touching them or by tilting your mobile device (iPhone/iPad). Also, a person can blow into the microphone to mimic the Big Bad Wolf as he blows on the houses.

Thursday, November 1, 2012

Spanish MOOC is a free online Spanish course for anyone. This course is a 12 week course 6 hrs per week. The course will use Google+ Hangouts, recorded video, and Instreamia's learning platform. After the course students should be able to speak, read, and write in Spanish. This course runs from Jan 21st 2013 to April 8th 2013.

ReviewForDev is a site I've known about for awhile but decided to do a post after receiving an email on it. This is a fantastic site that any iOS App developer should know about. This is a great place for developers to get their app reviewed before or after it's release in a unbiased way. Also, this is a ideal place for promoting special give-away contests, etc. Finally, this is a great place for people to review/test apps before they are released and even get paid for their reviews.

Wednesday, October 31, 2012

SpellingCity is a fantastic site for all Spelling & Vocabulary means. This is done by finding or creating your own word lists (that can be imported) and then integrating them into educational games. This is an absolute great resource for teachers that also offers a free iOS app.

theLearnia is a new (beta) site for educational videos. This is done through a social network aspect that allows teachers to upload videos into "lessons" and then share w/ students. Users can then discuss via public/private messaging about the video. This is an ideal site for online learning.

Monday, October 29, 2012

EdShelf is a site I blog about quite often and one of my favorite new sites of the year. This is a great place for users to curate the web into lists as well as: rate, find, and organize new sites/apps. Edshelf is very user friendly, offers in depth reviews, as well as provide videos and links for Ed Tech products.

SurveyFace is a nice online site I found out about from one of my readers for creating surveys. There are lots of great features for users to like such as: templates, reporting, real-time results, and more. Best of all this SF is free!!

Sunday, October 28, 2012

SendHub is a site I've covered before that is ideal for creating another
line for your phone for free. This is great for education as it allows
teachers to send texts to groups of students, parents, etc for free
from any online device.

Here is more detailed info from a recent email...

"SendHub is a simple and fast way for professionals to communicate;
providing businesses, and organizations, with a call and messaging
solution to reach small and large groups of people. Their simple
interface lets users place & accept calls, as well as send group
messages to everyone, from anywhere. SendHub was founded for teachers,
but has also seen successful usage from businesses, political
organizations, faith groups and more."

Thursday, October 25, 2012

Problem-Attic is a site I just found out about through an email which is ideal for finding thousands of test questions that a educator can customize to meet their needs.

Here is more details from their email...

"Today, through Problem-Attic, more than 40,000, high quality,
challenging questions from 30 years of past New York Regents tests are
available and the site's offerings will continue to grow over the weeks
and months to come. Using Problem-Attic's
easy-to-use tools, teachers can search questions covering mathematics,
science, social studies and English by subject and topic, select the
ones that meet their needs and reformatted them into tests, quizzes,
worksheets, flashcards, or even problem-of-the-day
calendars."

Colingo is a new (beta) site for learning English. This is done in a fun environment through the use of video. Also, these videos are hosted on YouTube and online classes are are offered all day by native English speakers.

ESL Library is a wonderful site for educators of the English language looking for lesson plans and flashcards. There are over 500 lesson plans and 2000 vocabulary images. Also, there are lots of activities for students such as: group, real world issues, role-playing, and more.

Tuesday, October 23, 2012

Penpal News is a great free site for MS/HS students for engaging in online dialogues on real-world issues.

Here is some more info from their email...

"Our current Red-Blue initiative has been featured in the New York Times. We pair students
from red states and blue states to discuss issues such as immigration,
education and health care. Each exchange lasts 6 weeks, with one
45-minute lesson each week that students can complete in class or at
home, depending on the teacher's preference. We already have more than
6,000 students in 25 states participating."

InSkilled is a innovative site that engages learns by allowing them to collect, share, and learn online content. This is done in a unique way where users collect information such as websites or videos and curate them into online lessons. These lessons can then be shared w/ others. Another great feature is the ability track and see how much time you've spent on a lesson as well as other detailed information.

Snap Class is an excellent site for educators & students that want to host or take classes online. This is done in a safe/secure way through the use of webchat or over the phone. A person can host or take a class on any number subjects. Best of all Snap Class helps market your classes which can help educators/people earn money for their teachings.

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David Kapuler

I have been working w/ technology and education for over 14 years in a school setting. I'm looking for work in a K-12 environment as a Technology Integration/Support Specialist in WI/IL. Contact email - dkapuler@gmail.com
I'm currently looking to get my Mac OS/Repair Certification, as well as a Masters in Technology Integration.
Also, I have a solid background in web design, w/ network/server support.
On a personal note, I';m a proud father of 3 boys and 1 girl, and have been married for 10 years.